Ghosts
by Raven007
Summary: Starring Deja of the Sisterhood. Kind of like a love story with a lot of violence... and waffles.
1. Shadows of the past

"I would… I mean… I wouldn't… ever, ever double cross you… I… I swear!" Sweat dripped from the short, male's mud-brown feathers as he fumbled over his words.  
  
With an exasperated roll of her eyes, Deja pushed herself up from her leaning position on the cement wall and sighed, "Jimmy… Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy… I want to believe you… I really do." Pulling out one of her razor sharp Sias, the silver haired duck continued, "But, I just have this gut feeling that your lying to me." The woman's voice was patronizing, cold and filled with a deadly edge.  
  
The pudgy, balding drake fell to his knees and clasped his quivering hands in prayer position. "Please, Dej… you know I would never, NEVER do anything to like that! Not to you!"  
  
"Really?" Deja arched an eyebrow as she took a smooth step towards that cowering male.  
  
"R…really! We're friends… you and me… old friends..." He then added in a convincing tone, "Good friends."  
  
Like a flash of lightning, she had Jimmy picked up by the shirt collar and shoved against the wall, "Rumor has it, you've got new friends now, Jim." Her voice was hardly above a lethal whisper and her eyes burned with hatred. "Friends of the law enforcement variety."  
  
"Me?" He choked out, "friends?… You're my only frie…"  
  
"Can the bull shit, Jimmy!" Deja growled darkly as she tossed the brown drake across the room and on to his messed up desk.  
  
Jimmy rolled roughly off the disheveled desk, scrambled to his feet and took up a defensive position behind his large desk chair. Attempting to regain some shred of his masculinity, the drake tried to place a fierce look upon his face, though it ended up coming out more as an expression of dimwitted pain than cruelty. "All right… so I may have been doing some business on the side, big deal."  
  
"Big deal?"  
  
As she walked up to the desk, Jimmy began to maneuver himself around the opposite end, attempting to elude the nearing Deja. Seeing this as his only chance to escape her anger, he pushed the big chair towards her and bolted for the office's thick, wooden door. However, Jimmy had only run a few feet when he felt a burning, ripping pain in his left leg that caused him to drop to the ground in utter agony. "Aarggghh!!!!" He screamed hoarsely. Placing his chunky hand upon his thigh, Jimmy felt warm, thick blood gushing out of him in all directions.  
  
"No place to run, Jim," Deja said cruelly as she walked slowly towards him, an evil expression on her face, and a Chakram, held loosely in her hand. Crimson blood dripped slowly from the metallic boomerang-like weapon, "It's time to pay for your sell out."  
  
Attempting to hold his wounded thigh and inch his way towards the door, Jimmy Faconie felt he was truly a drake in trouble. He knew, that when he had made the deal with Detective Draven, that there was a good chance it would come down to this. Then again, Draven was the most terrifying detective he had ever met, and what he had said, chilled a cheap thug like Jimmy the very marrow of his bones.... ....  
  
... ..."You'll die in there, you know?" Draven had said, "The murders in prison'll rip a sniveling little, shit like you apart… literally, barehanded."  
  
"You cops got nothing on me, Draven," Jimmy had said cockily, stuffing a donut into his gaping beak.  
  
At that comment Draven only smirked and leaned in closer to Jimmy. In a sadistic yet slightly amused whisper the detective had spoken Jimmy's most heinous and filthy crimes to him as if he had watched Jimmy commit every one of them, personally. "You mean 'us cops' don' know how you molested two thirteen year-old girls n' had one a' your little thugs dump their bodies in a hole in a frozen lake? Or how you sell Meth to kids in fourth grade, jus' to get um' addicted early? Do I really have ta' mention killing your ex-wife… or her family?"... ...  
  
… … Combine detective Draven's knowledge with the fact that Jimmy was a trademark coward, and there really was not much of a choice but for him to tell the cop anything he wanted to know.  
  
So he'd spilled everything, how he had hired an assassin to 'take care' of a few things for him, who he had had her kill, and why. In exchange, Draven had allowed Jimmy to keep his freedom and his nightclub. However, looking back on things now, Jimmy felt that he would have preferred prison to being butchered by Deja.  
  
"Please," Jimmy begged, his eyes going wide as she attached her Chakram to her belt, and pulled a large Sia from her belt. "Deja… don't do this…"  
  
Effortlessly, she flipped the Sia around in her hand, "What did you tell him, tubby?" Deja asked in a low growl, placing her Sia into killing position at Jimmy's throat and kneeling down on his bleeding leg.  
  
Jimmy winced in pain, "Ow…. I told him everything, who you killed for me, how I hired you… all of it!"  
  
"And... ..?"  
  
"And, he already knew… he told me he'd been looking for you for years….said that he figured you could have done better than working for garbage like me!" Jimmy yelled his words in agony as Deja increased the pressure on his wound.  
  
Digging her weapon in to the drake's throat slightly, Deja raised an eyebrow, "What was his name… this… detective?"  
  
With a scream, Jimmy yelled, "Draven, detective Draven!"  
  
In one quick, elegant movement, Deja got up off of Jimmy and placed her Sia back into its sheath upon her hip. "You're scum, Jim, absolute sewage, you know that?"  
  
Opening one eye in surprise, Jimmy nearly passed out in relief at seeing Deja standing on the other side of the room. "Yeah," he breathed in relief, "scum… sewage." With a great deal of effort, the drake managed to get to his feet and limp over to his desk chair. "Glad to see you changed your mind, Dej…" he panted, "I knew you wouldn't do it." Jimmy continued to speak and he poured some whisky onto his wound to sterilize it. "See, as much as you hate to admit it… we need each other you and me… …"  
  
"Draven..?" Deja murmured the question to herself, leaning against the cement wall behind her, and completely ignoring Jimmy. "Draven..? Could it really be him?" After all of these years she was surprised that she could still picture his face, but, there he was in her minds eye as though she had seen him only yesterday. Axe Draven, tall, built, Blond, malevolent and deadly. But what was he doing in Malland? Not to mention as a Detective…. …  
  
"Hey, Deja… you listening to me?"  
  
Deja's musings were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Jimmy's overly friendly voice. "What," she asked him through an exasperated sigh, "do you want now?"  
  
Patting his freshly dampened wound, Jimmy smiled, "I was saying how we're gonna look back on this in ten years and laugh." Taking a swig from his bottle, the drake leaned his large frame backwards in his desk chair and placed his lacerated leg up on a near by stool.  
  
"You're half right, Jim," Deja said nonchalantly, as she turned towards him and gave a long, luxurious stretch.  
  
A look of confusion crossed Jimmy's pudgy face, "Uh, how do you mean, darlin'?"  
  
"In ten years I'll look back on this and laugh, you won't." Like a coiled rattle snake, Deja pulled one of her Sias from her belt and hurled it at Jimmy, piercing his heart and sending him toppling over backwards in his chair.  
  
The large gangster made no sound, save for the thud of his chair hitting the ground. Jimmy was too shocked to attempt to speak, as blood trickled from his beak and his eyes began to slowly close. Vertigo set in as Jimmy's body slowly started to die… his head swam, the pain is his chest and leg dulled to a tedious, heavy throbbing. There was a rasping in his lungs as Jimmy's breath slowed and his heart nearly ceased beating.  
  
In a second, the drake's killer was kneeling by his side pulling her weapon from his chest. "No one double crosses me, Jimmy… no one. But consider this piece of advice for your next life… never lie to a woman, we always find out."  
  
At the sound of her voice, a small gurgling noise erupted from Jimmy's throat, however, that was the last sound that the drake would ever make. Swiftly, Deja swept the blade of her Sai across his thick throat, ending his life in one, simple movement. Jimmy's raspy breathing ceased, and all in the small office was silent save for the thud of the music coming from the nightclub in the next room.  
  
After his last breath had come, Deja quietly stood, opened the office door, and slipped out into the crowd of drakes and strippers. "Good bye, Jimmy… you raping piece of shit," she said quietly as she wiped his blood from her blade and traversed her way through the mass of ducks in the packed nightclub. 


	2. The way it is

Deja had spent the rest of the night getting drunk at a small local bar and trying not to think about the situation with Axe. She'd hummed show tunes for awhile, but after the ten or twelfth bourbon it was hard to remember the words to Ducaine and the amazing Technicolor dream coat… hell after about 12 bourbons she hardly remembered who Ducaine was, let alone why he had an amazing Technicolor dream coat to begin with. After that, her next few hours were filled with her drinking a few more bottles, challenging some drunken thug to a fist fight, and beating the holy hell out of him with a bar stool.  
  
It was nearly dawn when her head began to clear. Deja slowly climbed up the fire escape of a large apartment building, the throbbing in her temples causing her to miss a rung of the ladder every now and then. Not that she cared too much mind you. At this point her only thought was to get to the top so she could sit down, relax, and try to make the hangover go away. About 10 minuets later she made it to the roof of the building and rolled her self from the ladder to the hard concrete and brick that the roof was made up of.  
  
Lying there on the cool cement, her heart thumping, her head aching, Deja decided that she was starting to get too old for nights like this. She had no trouble doing this when she was 14. Then again, she was still so fresh from the lab that anything she ate or drank was transformed into energy and endorphins anyway, so it really hadn't mattered much. But that had long since changed - now it seemed anything Deja drank made her belly ache and anything she ate made her sick. "Ow," Deja quietly mumbled into the cement as the sun broke over the horizon line, shining directly into her tired and sensitive eyes.  
  
Crystalline flicks of light danced throughout the baby blue sky as another day was born in Malland. "Damn you, useless body," she said, squeezing her eyes shut, and slowly rolling over onto her back so the sunlight could warm her. And there she stayed, for three hours upon the rooftop, not moving, or thinking; just breathing and relaxing her mind into a state where she felt whole and at peace. When her mock mediation was done, Deja knew that the time had come to return to the Sisterhood, and decide what she would do about Draven.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
As Deja neared Sisterhood Head Quarters, a troubled, and almost rueful look placed itself on her face. 'It's weird,' she thought to herself as she strolled casually down the crowded street. 'I never would have guessed that being a part of the Sisterhood could make me this honor bound. For most of my life I've been looking out for myself and willing to squash anyone to get to where I want to be. I've never been loyal to anyone, or kept anybody's secrets out of respect, only for what I could gain from them.' Turning on to another street in the business district, the young duck made her way, unnoticed through the throng of ducks and Drakes; all on their way to office jobs of some sort. With a confused sigh, Deja continued her thoughts. 'But with the Sisterhood, it's different. I would never betray them, or disobey the rules of the group. Hell, no one there really judges you for being a thief or having a past, and if they do I guess they keep their beaks shut about it.'  
  
She had been thinking these thoughts over and over again since she had heard that name, Axe Draven. Finding out about Draven, had given her cause to weigh her options, and her allegiances.  
  
The duck growled in anger, "I thought Jimmy was the last loose end I had tie up." Deja was referring to one of the Sisterhoods cardinal rules… 'All members must sever all outside contacts.' Now, thanks to Jimmy, Draven knew she was here, and alive, plus she knew Draven well enough to say, that if he wanted to find her, he would, Sisterhood or not.  
  
'Maybe I could talk to one of the other girls about this?' The idea popped into her head quite abruptly, and Deja attempted to dismiss it just as quickly as it had come. "Yeah right… It'll be super fab," she murmured in a high-pitched valley girl tone. "I'll just go up to somebody and ask them to chat. Then after that, we'll do each others hair, and talk about boys while seeing how many ho-ho's we can cram down our throats… it'll be just like a high school sleep-over!" Upon hearing her voice, and her words, Deja had to smile; the ducks in the sisterhood were not really like that at all. However, the notion of any form of girl talk made Deja little queasy.  
  
"This could be why I don't have too many friends," snickered Deja quietly as she entered the main room of Sisterhood headquarters and headed for the kitchen area. Her night out had given her a bit of an appetite, not to mention that she hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday morning. "I'll just grab a piece of leftover…" Deja stopped speaking as she entered the kitchen, her eyes falling on fellow Sisterhood member, DC Frost feather.  
  
DC looked up from her waffle batter at the sound of Deja's voice. "Hey," DC said lightly, wiping a bit of batter from the tip of her beak.  
  
"Hey," Deja replied in an vaguely listless tone, as she removed her leather coat and placed it on a near by chair. "Sorry to interrupt your waffles."  
  
With a wave of her hand DC smiled and then went back to mixing, "Not a problem."  
  
Although DC seemed friendly, there was something about her, that Deja thought was a little off, although she quickly dismissed it as she got the same feeling from almost everyone else here. Allowing herself a cat like stretch, she stifled a yawn, walked over to the large refrigerator, and opened the door. Her blue eyes narrowed to a scowl as she discovered that there were no leftovers inside the fridge. This was the last straw to a perfectly horrible few days! "Well it just figures!" She growled in aggravation.  
  
"Problem?"  
  
Deja shut the fridge with extreme force and turned around to face DC. "Did you know" she asked in an irate tone, "that there is no pizza in here? Now I have to go back out there and get pizza… What a completely productive waste of my time that is going to be!" Realizing that she was almost yelling, Deja sighed, and smiled a little sheepishly, "Sorry… it's been a really long night."  
  
DC added a few berries into her waffle mixture and grinned, "Don't worry about it… it can get like that sometimes."  
  
"It's like that all the time…"  
  
Raising an eyebrow, DC dumped the batter into a large waffle iron and then placed the bowl in the sink. "Is it, now?"  
  
Slumping down into a large kitchen chair, and allowing her head to fall backwards, Deja sighed. "Sometimes… maybe… I don't know. It's like, it doesn't matter what you do… something is always pulling you back down."  
  
Applying pressure to the lid on top of the waffle iron, DC sighed, although it was more for herself than for Deja. "Tell me about it." She strode over the fridge, opened the door, and grabbed the syrup from inside.  
  
Before Deja could stop herself the words were leaping unbidden from her throat. "I thought joining the Sisterhood would help me get away from all of this crap from my past… but here it is… rearing it's ugly head and sticking it's beak into my life." Deja ran her hand through her short hair then folded her arms across her chest. "I thought I got rid of the last thing from my past that could hurt me…"  
  
Opening the lid to the waffle iron with a bit of excessive force, DC smiled ruefully, "There's always something out there, always… the trick is to stay ahead of it."  
  
"Maybe…" Deja sighed as she crossed her legs. "But what if you know that you can't stay ahead of it? What if you know that it'll be right there at your door in a couple of days and it won't be thrilled to see you?"  
  
"Well…"  
  
Deja cut her off, "what if it's tough, relentless, lethal…" her voice softened a bit as she continued, "…irresistible, tall, green eyed, blond, gorgeous, and built like a brick…" Deja stopped herself and looked up.  
  
DC had a slight and almost mischievous smile on her face, and her eyes were slightly twinkling, "I see…"  
  
Smiling, Deja cocked her head to the side, "Can we pretend I never mentioned that last part?"  
  
"Sure," said DC suppressing a snicker as she dished some of the now cooked waffles on to a plate. She then grabbed the syrup and walked over to Deja. "Just remember, you can either spend your life running, or do what you need to do to survive." That said, DC set the waffles and the syrup down in front of the other woman and turned to leave the room.  
  
With a small look of confusion on her face, Deja picked up the syrup, "Uh… DC You're a fellow woman, can you tell me something?"  
  
DC paled slightly, and only turned half way around, "Uh… I'll try…"  
  
"All this confusion and aggravation we feel… is that why drakes think we're strange."  
  
"It's one of the many reasons."  
  
Deja rolled her eyes, "It figures… thanks for the waffles."  
  
With a relieved sigh, DC continued to walk from the room. "Don't mention it." 


	3. Forever may not be long enough

Furiously, Deja glowered at the small cracks on the roof. She'd tried to sleep, really she had, and DC's words did bring her some comfort, but they had also bestowed upon her a sense of truth. Deja knew she would have to seek out Draven before he could find her… and she would have to deal with him. DC was right, It was Axe's survival or her own and she would become a Saurian before she would allow him to win out.  
  
"Damn," she whispered to herself as she rolled onto her side and glared, in annoyance around the darkened room, "I can't sleep." Knowing that it would be pointless to lie in her bed and stare at the roof, Deja tossed her heavy covers to the floor and sighed heavily. 'It's always something,' thought Deja cynically, 'be born Deja…commit murder without a thought Deja…don't eat too much candy...kill the man who took you off the streets! By Ducaine, I swear I'm being punished!'  
  
With a roll of her cerulean eyes the thief rolled out of bed and quickly dressed in her usual thieving gear. Black, flared pants; a tight, maroon tank top; thick healed boots; and her leather bomber jacket. With a quick toss of her short, silvery hair, Deja grabbed her Sias and boomerang, then picked up her thick, jumbled covers from the floor and tossed them haphazardly onto her bed.  
  
'I mind as well do something productive tonight,' she thought. Silent as a ghost, the thief crept to towards the door, snatched her thigh pouch and belt from a small section of hangers, and headed through the door, closing it soundlessly behind her.  
  
  
  
Axe Draven was nicknamed Malice by those who knew him, the name was fitting, for he killed with little thought and even less emotion. To him, everyone was a potential victim, and he felt that it was at his discretion that anyone who came across him walked away alive. Anyone that is except for her.  
  
When he had found Deja all those years ago, she was a member of a small time street gang. A 16 year old with more potential than most adults could even dream of having. So he'd taken her in…taught her how to steal for the thrill, and for the pleasure, not just to survive. Axe lead her to an employer, to riches… he had bestowed upon her everything. Things he had never even allowed any other being to glimpse, Axe had readily given her. Why? To this question, Axe Draven admitted no answer. Even now, as he sat on a thick windowsill in an abandoned loft in Malland, he was not willing to admit what that was.  
  
"Damn you, Draven," he muttered, his Tarctican accent apparent in most all of his words, "you're s'pposed to 'ave it all together. What the 'ells goin' on with you?" Naturally, his question went unanswered save for the fluttering of a few birds in the rafters of the loft. "Yeah, sure, all together" Axe sighed, leaning his head back against the thick bricks of the building and allowing the chilled breeze to rustle through his short hair and tan feathers.  
  
"You leave quite the trail."  
  
The voice startled Axe so much that is was a task and a half for him to leap up, grab his puckblaster and turn around without falling out the window. Fire flashed in his teal eyes as the drake looked at the shadows of the loft, pointing his weapon at them all in turn. "who the 'ell are you?" He looked around, then added under his breath, "where the 'ell are you?"  
  
"If I were special forces," the voice stated cryptically, "you'd be dead by now."  
  
"If you were special forces, " Axe retorted angrily, "you'd a' been dead 'alfway down the bleedin' block! Now where the 'ell are you!?" Although he was angry enough to strangle a puppy, Axe took a few deep breaths and in a matter of seconds deduced the area the voice was coming from. Axe aimed the puckblaster at a large pile of dusty boxes, and waited.  
  
Stepping casually out from behind the pile of boxes, Deja smirked, "you panicked."  
  
Tossing his gun to the ground in a mix of aggravation and relief, Axe yelled, "I almost fell out the damn window!" Running a hand roughly through his cropped blond hair Axe lowered his voice to a lethal growl, "how'd you find me?"  
  
Deja shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "Jimmy video tapes everything that happens in his office… I watched the tape a few times and paid attention."  
  
"And..?" Axe snarled while gesturing with his hand to tell her to keep speaking.  
  
"And," Deja said through a smirk, "You looked like shit so I assumed you weren't sleeping well, so hotels and anywhere with a bed was out." She then folded her arms in front of her and continued, "I know you want to stay has inconspicuous as possible because you have a few too many enemies… plus, we used to do the abandoned loft thing when we worked together."  
  
Axe was almost dumbfounded… 'must be getting old, leaving a trail like that' he inwardly scolded himself. Outwardly, however he was the picture of calm and control, "not bad. So you're 'ere to tell me why you left then? Why one mornin' I woke up n' you were gone?"  
  
Deja stood there, looking like an unconcerned pro, however her heart was racing a mile a minuet. 'I have to keep this whole thing in my court,' she thought quickly, 'be quick and to the point, do what needs to be done.' "It happens Axe, you would have left eventually too."  
  
"Like 'ell I would've," he growled furiously, "we 'ad a good thing… we were partners, and you went and threw it all away!"  
  
Axe was right, she knew he was right, but Axe would never understand the reason. There were things that he knew about her… things that she knew about him. They could easily destroy each other, and she thought it best to go, before he could stab her in the back. "I left before you could hurt me Draven," Deja said coolly, picking her words carefully. "Or before I could hurt you… remember what you said, teach… leave before they can hurt you, you taught me that!"  
  
Axe seemed to calm down a little as he listened to what Deja said. She was right, he did teach her that, but he never thought it would come back to bite him in the ass like it did. Sure, he was still angry but in a way it was his fault. "It's my fault, then?"  
  
"In a way I guess it is." That was not the whole reason for her leaving… at least not in the sense that he was being led to believe it was. But Deja felt that allowing him to believe that it was his teaching that led her to leave was far better then telling him the truth.  
  
"So you found me," Axe said coolly changing the subject and going back to his position on the window ledge. "What are you gonna do 'bout it?" He leaned his head back against the hard brick behind him and dangled one leg out of the window.  
  
Deja unsheathed her Sias and flipped them a few times, and in a voice as cold as ice she spoke, "whatever needs to be done."  
  
At this Axe raised an amused eyebrow, but said nothing.  
  
"You're here in Malland for a reason Draven, you want revenge on me for skipping out on you. So I think the question is; now that I've found you… what are YOU going to do about it?"  
  
Axe stood snorted, "I s'posse you think I'm gonna kill you." With a roll of his eyes he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small shiny object. Nonchalantly, he tossed it at Deja, "might wanna catch that, luv."  
  
Deja watched the object spin through the air towards her, and before she could decided whether he was tossing some sort of new fangled grenade at her she dropped her sia's on the floor and caught the item. Looking down she saw that it wasn't a grenade at all, but rather a small vile containing a neon blue liquid. Deja looked up at Axe then down to the vile, than at Axe again. "Just what is this?"  
  
"I'm surprised you don' know."  
  
Deja looked closer, it seemed so familiar to her, the way the liquid glinted and glowed as she twisted the vile in her hand. It was like something she used to see all the time, something she knew… Suddenly it was as though a light flipped on in her mind. "It's Dejaran serum!!"  
  
"N' on the firs' try too," Axe stated dryly, grabbing a can of soda from the floor and taking a long swig.  
  
Deja was thunderstruck, "how… why do you have this… where did you get it?"  
  
Axe placed the can of soda back on the floor then stood up and walked over to Deja, he seemed to be enjoying the suspense. "A thief never reveals his secrets."  
  
In a flash Deja had placed the serum in one of her many pockets, grabbed Axe by the collar and pulled him down to her level, "I swear I'll kill you, Draven," she growled.  
  
Grabbing Deja by the under arms, Axe flipped her over his head. Deja slammed back-first on to the ground followed by Axe, who landed so that he was straddling her and she was hardly able to move. "I know you will," he whispered harshly, though his eyes were twinkling with humor. "Don' forget who the teacher is 'ere, luv." With amazing speed Axe pinned her arms above her head.  
  
"I've had a lot of teachers," the girl said breathlessly, as she slammed her head into Axes throat. The drake instinctively placed his hands at his neck while he gasped for air. Using all of her strength. Deja placed one of her now freed arms across his chest, placed the palm of her hand on his forehead and pushed.  
  
Axe rolled off of her, and started to cough, attempting to allow the air through his windpipe. Deja flipped to her feet, and stood in ready position as Axe slowly stood up taking long deep breaths.  
  
"… Bitch…" he managed to choke out.  
  
"Where'd you get the serum, Draven?"  
  
Looking up at her with spite in his eyes, he snarled, "n' who the 'ell taught you that?!"  
  
Deja sighed in exasperation, "a drunk thug at the bar last night," one of her hands quickly went up to her sore windpipe. "He's small, but he's wiry ." A smirk found its way to Deja's beak, as she continued to look at Axe.  
  
"One a' the dealers I do jobs for," Axe's voice was not has sever when he spoke this time, and his breath was coming almost normally now. "I figured you might wanna 'ave it."  
  
Mauling over the information that Axe had just given her, Deja looked at him quizzically, "but how would he have gotten it?"  
  
Leaning on a nearby support beam, Axe shrugged his shoulders, "who knows? He said it was the only one he'd ever seen."  
  
Deja was not about to put the matter to rest, this was way too important to just let lie. If the Dominion was still out there and operational, she had to know. "I need a name."  
  
"Yer kiddin', right… I can't give out a contact."  
  
"This is serious," Deja stated firmly as she strode over to where her Sias lay, and picked them up. "The serum expires a month after it is created. So if this dealer of yours has it then that means there is still someone out there making it."  
  
Axe stretched and placed his arms behind his head, "so how'd you know the stuff you got ain't expired?" His curiosity was getting the better of him.  
  
Raising an eyebrow and looking up at him, she smirked, "it explodes when it expires," she then pulled the vile out from her pocket, "this is fresh." Slowly walking up to him she continued, "I need his name… or at least put me in contact with him." Deja stopped directly in front of him and folded her arms over he chest.  
  
"Dej… I…" Just looking at her standing there, was enough to make Axe cave. Her eyes slightly pleading, her body tense and ready for anything… 'damn her' he thought angrily. 'Damn me too.' "I'll let you know where you can find him," Axe said defeated, gently brushing a lock of her crystal blue hair out of her face.  
  
"Thank you," she said in a voice so delicate and genuine Axe could hardly believe she was the girl who only minuets ago bashed him in the wind pipe.  
  
Slowly, the drake lifted his left hand to her face and tenderly began to caress her forehead and beak. His other hand gradually slid from her hair to her shoulder and he began to pull Deja closer to him. Axe looked deeply into her blue eyes, his gaze penetrating and passionate, he yearned for her body, mind and soul. Just the touch of her made the drake's skin burn and his mind unable to reason anything but lust. The way she looked at him as he pulled her to his body made Axe think that she might want him with that deep unspoken hunger, just as he wanted her.  
  
"Axe," Deja said quietly, pulling away from him and looking at the ground, "It can't happen."  
  
Softly turning her face back towards him, Axe cocked his head to the side, "why can't it?"  
  
Taking a step back, she sighed then looked up at him, "another time or another place and we could have been magic," Deja spoke wistfully, "but there has just been too much…" she lowered her head and spoke in a voice that was barely audible "too many lies, too many truths, too much pain." When she looked up again, the drake was on the other side of the room.  
  
Axe had walked over to the window and was staring out at the Malland skyline with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "I'll get you the dealers address, and leave it up 'ere. You can pick it up tomorrow."  
  
Deja nodded even though he could not see her then turned to leave.  
  
"That why you really left before?"  
  
Without looking back, Deja smiled ruefully, "too many lies, and too many truths." And with that her past with Axe seemed to seal itself off in a place inside of her soul, one that could never be tampered with or opened again. Both ducks new that all past transgressions were forgiven and all secrets would be safe and unrevealed. Everything that had ever transpired between them, good or bad, real or imagined was buried forever… as though it had never happened... ... ...  
  
  
  
Deja didn't allow herself to cry as she sat in the dark kitchen of Sisterhood Head Quarters. She had misjudged Axe, in the worst way and she would pay for it for the rest of her life. He'd never wanted to hurt her, even after she had left in the middle of the night all those years ago, he still never wanted to hurt her.  
  
Pulling out the small vile of Dejaran serum, she sighed. This would help her solve all the problems she'd been having with her body, hell it might even end up saving her life. Plus, if this contact panned out, she might be able to put a stop to the Dominion for good. 'I'm sorry, Draven,' Deja thought sadly, 'for everything that could never be, I'm so very sorry.' Placing the vile back into her pocket, Deja got up and walked soundlessly through the darkness to her quarters.  
  
  
  
... ..."Axe," Deja had said quietly one evening, years ago, "I have something I need to tell you."  
  
Looking up from loading and cleaning his multitude of weapons, Axe smiled, "what, luv?"  
  
Deja took a deep breath in to summon some strength. "I… you know how you're always asking me about… well…"  
  
Axe placed his gun down beside him on the floor, then got up and walked across the room to where Deja was sitting amongst a pile of swords. "Dej," he said softly, sitting next to her, "tell me, can't be that hard."  
  
Her face hardening into an unreadable mask, Deja took another breath, and in a tone that held no emotion save for mild glimpses of hostility, Deja told him about her past. "I was created in a lab," she had said, "and trained from birth to be the ultimate fighting and killing machine. I stayed there until I was eleven... I got brain implants daily, and I was a test subject for drugs, gene splicing and Ducaine knows what else. I destroyed the lab, but it doesn't end there. There is something wrong with me… something inside of me…"  
  
Axe spoke not one word, only placed his arm around her shoulders and allowed her to continue.  
  
"You always ask me, if I'm crazy when I do some of the things I do," her voice momentarily faltered, but it was so quick it might not have happened at all. "Well I am. My brain… my mind… I become something else sometimes, something dark, something vile, but the worst thing is, it's something I can't control… ever. It's like it feeds off of who I really am… if this is who I really am…"  
  
Pulling her closer to him, Axe stroked her shoulder, "there are ducks out there that love you, Dej... remember that."  
  
Deja cried silently in Axe's arms as he softly stroked her air and shoulders. 'I've never loved anyone before,' she thought tiredly as she fell off into a deep, dreamless sleep, 'but I love you Axe...' 


End file.
